by P. T. Hylton
The trap was sprung. Hope and pride filled Alex. There was one last element left to activate, and she could end this. She expected that at any moment, Brian would activate the sound generator, and the Twisted would fall to the ground.
Unfortunately for the men and women of Agartha she did not get what she expected.
37
Jessica and Billy huddled in the maintenance tunnel, surrounded by wires and electronics. Jessica lowered the radio and gave Billy a hard look. “It’s time.”
Billy just nodded solemnly. Though he looked more like a drunk than a warrior, Jessica had come to respect him over the past few days. He wasn’t always the most direct individual, but he was tough as nails where it counted. And if it hadn’t been for his connections in just about every sector, they wouldn’t have gotten this far. Of their three dozen confidants, about thirty-three had come from Billy.
And now, hopefully, that thirty-six was about to become a whole lot more.
It hadn’t been easy sneaking down here. Billy’d had one of his connections rig a small explosion on the other side of Sparrow’s Ridge. Luckily, it had worked, drawing the patrolling Twisted away. With Maryana’s kill order in effect on anyone found outside, the streets had been deserted as Jessica and Billy raced from the apartment to the nearest access hatch, three buildings away. They’d made their way to the correct junction under street level, set up their equipment, and waited for the go ahead from the GMT.
Now that it had come, there was nothing left to do but check the connections one more time to ensure that they were plugged into the citywide PA system. Jessica did so, and then drew a deep breath. This was it. A tiny shock jumped into her finger when she pressed the button to play the recording. She didn’t know whether that was a good omen or a bad one.
For a moment, there was nothing. Then a familiar voice filled the streets up above, echoing down to the tunnels.
“Hi, New Haven. This is Alex Goddard. I know you haven’t seen me in a while, and I apologize for my absence.”
Jessica pushed her equipment aside and pulled out her revolver. She nodded for Billy to follow, then started down the tunnel. There was no reason to wait for this to be over before they began their brutal mission. If it didn’t work, they were pretty screwed. Better to face the Twisted with their kill order than to stay in hiding and face the eventual wrath of Maryana.
“I left because I wanted to find a way to stop Maryana,” Alex continued, her recorded voice echoing through the city. “I wanted to find a way to save you. That’s my job. That’s the GMT’s job. We’re here to save you.”
Jessica reached a hatch, one that she knew came up in the heart of Sparrow’s Ridge. She touched the handle and waited for her moment.
Alex paused before continuing. “Here’s the thing, New Haven. I can’t save you this time. Please believe me, I tried. I threw myself into it with everything I have. But it wasn’t enough. This thing we’re facing is just too big. A lot of people have died in this fight, including Colonel Brickman. CB was my hero. He was the toughest guy I ever knew. And maybe the smartest, too. He once told me that the one thing I should never underestimate is the people of New Haven. You are descended from the only ones who survived Maryana’s infestation the first time around, and you’re going to survive it again.”
Jessica checked her weapon and tightened her fingers around the handle. It was almost time.
“I can’t save you,” Alex said, “but I don’t have to. You’re going to save yourselves. What I’m asking is not going to be easy. I know about the kill order. The Twisted are going to attack you the moment you step outside your door. But they won’t kill all of you. Get a weapon. There are stores of makeshift weapons in thirty different buildings in every district throughout the city. Their windows are marked with orange Xs. If you don’t see one of those buildings nearby, use whatever heavy objects you can find.” She paused. “Look, I know I’m not going to motivate you with pretty words. That was Fleming’s way. And I’m not going to scare you into it. That’s Maryana’s style. I’m just a New Haven kid who barely passed ninth grade Algebra, so I’m going to give it to you straight. Take your city back. Fight the Twisted. Show Maryana New Haven belongs to the humans. I’m proud of you. Now go kick their asses.”
The transmission ended with an audible click. As it did, Jessica threw open the hatch and pulled herself up onto the street. Less than a block away, two Twisted stared at each other, confused looks on their faces. Then one of them spotted Jessica, and his face immediately changed. As Maryana’s kill order took over, all control left his body, replaced by the furious need to kill the one who’d defied his master.
The Twisted started charging before his companion even noticed Jessica. She dropped to one knee and held the revolver steady, waiting until it got a bit closer. She didn’t have to wait long. The creature moved with uncanny speed, and it was everything she could do to force herself to hold her ground. Even after seeing the Twisted wandering around the city so much lately, seeing one charging with the intent to kill was something different entirely.
She waited as long as she dared, then squeezed off three shots. It had been a long while since she’d fired a weapon, so she didn’t trust her marksman skills enough to go for the head. She fired at center mass. On her second shot, the Twisted stumbled, falling on its face and sliding ten feet along the street, carried by its own momentum. The creature started to get up, but Billy was already in motion. He sprinted to within ten feet of the creature and shot it twice in the head.
There was no time to be pleased with their victory. That was only one of the two-hundred and fifty Twisted Maryana had left in the city, and so far, Jessica and Billy were the only humans in the street. Jessica’s eyes shifted to the second Twisted, and she saw that he was running in the other direction. Toward people… There were other people in the street!
Just past the Twisted, Jessica saw a group of ten men and women. They let out a battle cry as they charged at the Twisted. Jessica glanced up and saw more of them pouring out of one of the buildings where they’d left the makeshift weapons. The orange X on the window gave it away.
Unfortunately, their weapons store didn’t include many firearms. The first man the Twisted reached was carrying a board with a nail driven through it. The man swung it at the creature’s head valiantly, but the Twisted easily knocked it away and drove his claws into the man’s midsection. As he gored the man, the others piled on him, driving their knives into his body, chopping at his neck with their axes and beating at its head with blunt objects.
Five more humans paid with their lives, but it wasn’t long before the Twisted fell, his body a bloody mess.
As Jessica watched, four more Twisted rounded the corner, running to help their fallen comrade. They were quickly followed by nearly a hundred citizens.
“It’s working.” Tears stood in Jessica’s eyes as she spoke. “I can’t believe it’s working.”
Billy let out a deep laugh. “After more than two decades running Tankards, the one thing I never doubted was that the people of New Haven knew how to throw a punch.”
Jessica moved through the streets of Sparrow’s Ridge, directing people toward any area where the Twisted seemed to be getting the upper hand. As she observed, the people seemed to be coming up with strategies on the fly. Those with blunt objects distracted the Twisted, while those with knives stabbed for their brains and hearts.
As she turned a corner she saw a man savagely drive a chef’s knife into a Twisted’s eye, pushing it through to the brain. The man looked up, and Jessica saw it was Wesley. He gave her a nod and a grim smile as the Twisted collapsed.
Many a human fell. Oh, so many. The human blood flowed down the streets of the city, while the speckles of Twisted blood were much rarer. But that was all part of the plan, God help them. There were two-hundred-fifty Twisted and forty thousand humans. Based on what Jessica was seeing, the average Twisted was taking out about twenty people before he was brought down. That was a terrible
price to pay. It was also enough to defeat the Twisted.
After things seemed to be reaching a conclusion in Sparrow’s Ridge, Jessica had a terrible thought. Yes, the hard-scrabble folks of the Ridge had managed to overcome the Twisted, but what about the softer people in the Hub, where there would likely be a higher concentration of Twisted? She turned on her heel and sprinted through the blood-soaked street toward the center of the city.
When she reached it, she was surprised to find it much like the way she’d left the Ridge. The fighting continued in small pockets, but things had quieted down a bit. There were more human bodies on the ground than in Sparrow’s Ridge, but there were more Twisted bodies, too.
Near the City Council building, a woman stood at the center of a small crowd, her bloody knife held aloft and a wide smile on her face. “For New Haven!” she cried.
The crowd answered in an even louder voice. “For New Haven!”
Jessica stopped in her tracks as she recognized the woman. She hadn’t seen her in years. She’d been Brian’s former lab assistant and Fleming’s greatest confidant. It was Sarah. Jessica shook her head, wondering if Maryana had decided to empty out the prison, along with the hospital.
She supposed it didn’t matter, at least not for today. The people of New Haven had won the battle against the Twisted, and now they were cheering. Not for some great leaders or some military hero, but for themselves.
38
Brian watched on a monitor in Agartha’s command center as the Twisted army moved into position. As soon as the canyon was lined with armed troops he hit the command to activate the sonic generator. He kept his eyes on the monitor, waiting for the Twisted to fall down, stunned, but nothing happened. His heart raced and color flushed his face. He looked at his tablet and saw the error message blinking there. Power overload - section 238-16.
“Oh, my God. Stephanie, we have a problem. We need to fix this, now!”
She jumped out of her seat and grabbed the tablet from Brian. “I can fix this. Just be ready to activate the weapon.” She grabbed a radio and ran toward the electrical room.
Brian hit the button to open the radio channel to the troops in the field. “The sonic generators are not working. We are trying to fix it, but until we do, you are on your own.”
Even with the gunfire coming from above, Frank heard Maryana’s voice echoing off the canyon walls. “Get up top! Break through their ranks.”
Bullets ricocheted around the canyon, sending up puffs of dust as they hit the ground, or splatters of blood as they tore through Twisted flesh. The first-time soldiers of Agartha had terrible accuracy. They managed to hit some of the Twisted, but most of the shots were not fatal. When Maryana yelled her order, the Twisted sprang from the floor and began climbing the canyon walls.
Frank continued his charge from the rear, both of his hands wrapped around the hilt of a sword. An army of men followed behind him, but his vampire speed put him one hundred yards in front. He reached an injured Twisted soldier scrambling for the canyon wall, his right leg dragging behind him. The Twisted turned to face Frank with a pistol. Frank’s instincts kicked in and he tracked the barrel of the weapon, moving just ahead of the shots. He charged at full speed, bringing his sword parallel to the ground. The blade passed through the Twisted’s neck, and his head rotated as it flew through the air, spraying a line of blood against the rocks.
Frank scanned the ground and saw about fifty of the Twisted were already dead from the initial assault from above. Fifty more were injured and climbing the walls toward their attackers. He spotted a Twisted twenty feet away, starting her climb. He leaped toward her, kicking up dirt as he left the ground. He put his sword through her heart and looked for his next target.
Bullets and the sound of gunfire bounced around the canyon. The soldiers caught up to Frank and opened fire on the surviving Twisted. They’d successfully flanked the Twisted on all sides.
Frank heard a scream from the top of the wall. A quick glance around the canyon told him that the Twisted there would be finished in moments. He began to climb.
Felix watched the Twisted reach the top of the canyon wall and launch themselves into the air. They shot up over the top of his troops and landed behind them, pressing them toward the edge. Twisted and humans were packed in shoulder to shoulder. Felix looked down the sights of his rifle, but it was impossible to get a clean shot at the enemies among his troops. He saw a Twisted rip out one of his soldiers’ throats. The flesh stuck to the Twisted’s hand as he pushed the injured man away and pressed forward toward more humans. A soldier unloaded a handgun into the Twisted. The shots tore into his back, but some of the bullets went wild, hitting other Agartha troops. The Twisted fell to the ground, and before he could get up, Felix put a round through the back of his head.
Felix heard screams to his left and pushed through the soldiers in that direction. He spotted a Twisted with five knives sticking out of his torso. The angry Twisted pushed forward, slashing at the soldiers around him. Each time he landed a blow, bones cracked loudly. The creature was moving quickly, and Felix couldn’t see a way to get a clear shot at him. He charged toward the Twisted and pulled a knife out of his back. He jammed it upward into the base of the creature's skull. The Twisted looked like a marionette who’d had its strings cut. The limp body fell in a pile on the ground.
Movement in Felix’s peripheral vision caused him to jerk his head up. He expected to see a Twisted, but it was a mangled soldier’s body flying through the air. Felix’s heart broke at the sight. The man couldn’t have been older than twenty, but his young face was calm. The crooked angle of his neck suggested the calmness was permanent. Felix pushed forward in the direction from which the body had been thrown.
He broke through the crowd and saw a Twisted with his arm locked around a woman’s throat. She swung wildly at the Twisted, but her hands bounced harmlessly off his body. The Twisted used her as a shield as he tore into other soldiers. Four bodies already lay on the ground behind him. Felix brought his rifle to his shoulder. He drew in a breath and held it as a bead of sweat ran down his face. The Twisted drew his arm back to strike the next soldier, giving Felix an angle on his head. Felix squeezed the trigger, and the bullet flew true.
The Twisted collapsed on top of the woman. Felix pushed the body aside and pulled the woman to her feet. She had a glassy look in her eyes, and he could tell she was in shock. “You okay?”
Instead of answering, her eyes widened as she stared past him.
Felix turned, following her gaze, and saw Twisted holding an automatic rifle, spraying bullets into the crowd of tightly grouped soldiers. He felt a sudden pressure in his abdomen and staggered backward, barely keeping his feet as the soldiers around him fell. He raised his rifle, but it felt much heavier than it should have. Still, he managed to squeeze the trigger, hitting the Twisted in the arm and body. None of the shots were fatal. Pain was starting to radiate his midsection, and he felt hot, wet blood spreading across his stomach. The Twisted’s rifle barrel moved back toward him.
Another Twisted burst through the line of soldiers. This one wore a GMT uniform and carried a sword. Frank lunged forward, driving the tip of his blade through the first Twisted’s head. Felix watched the rifle drop to the ground, and Frank pulled his sword out of the creature’s skull.
Felix dropped to one knee and then fell backwards to the ground. His rifle dropped next to him. Frank ran over to him. He ripped Felix’s shirt open, revealing a hole in his lower left side. Blood pumped out of it. Frank used the torn shirt and pressed down on the wound.
“It doesn’t look that bad,” Frank said, his face grim. “Just hang on and we’ll get you some help.”
Felix smiled weakly as the color drained from his face. “You couldn’t have shown up thirty seconds earlier? I mean, I’m glad you came, but you’re as slow as Tino Martinez.” He let out a little laugh, but he grimaced in pain.
“I don’t think this is the time for baseball or jokes,” Frank said, watching bl
ood soak the fabric under his hands.
Felix drew in a shallow breath. “I think now is the perfect time for baseball and jokes.”
A half-smile formed on Frank’s face as tears blurred his vision. “You want to know when the Cubs finally won the Series?”
“Yeah. I think I’d like that.” A light smile stayed on Felix’s lips.
“2016. Your boys won maybe the greatest game seven in World Series history.”
“Ah. I would have liked to see that.”
“They were celebrating in the streets of Chicago for days. Even I had to admit, it was something special.”
“Thanks, Frank. You’re an okay guy, for a Cardinals fan.” Felix eyes drifted shut, and his head rested on the dirt of the mountain under a blue sky.
Ed held his ground as the Twisted raced up the canyon walls, shooting Twisted out of the sky as they jumped over him. He let out a fierce battle cry as he fired his weapon. His screams gave strength to the green soldiers he led.
“Go for the head and the heart!” he shouted.
While most of the Twisted were charging up the walls, a large, well-armed group remained in formation on the canyon floor. Ed knew who was in the center of that group, and he led his troops toward them. His only goal was to find Maryana and put a bullet through her head.
He kept his eyes on the fighting to his left, watching for Twisted. He saw one grab a soldier and swing him by his head, killing the man and using him like a club to knock back other troops. Ed skidded to a halt, bringing his rifle to his shoulder. He knew his shot was true as soon as he pulled the trigger. The upper right portion of the Twisted’s head exploded, and Ed was running again before the body hit the ground.